by Cherie Payne, Director of Government Relations and Sector Development at Vantage Point

April is here and we can start to look forward to spring. It’s the season when all the seeds we planted earlier in the year start to sprout. At Vantage Point, we’ve had a busy month of new beginnings.

Collective Action: Lobbyist Transparency Act

Vantage Point has been collaborating with Board Voice, the United Way, and the Vancouver Foundation to call on the BC Government to improve the Lobbyist Transparency Act (LTA).

In February 2022, we submitted this brief to the Attorney General and the Registrar of Lobbyists. The brief outlines some of the unintended impacts of the Act on not-for-profit organizations. It calls for a review of the legislation and offers some short-term solutions to immediately improve the current approach.

If you have examples of how the LTA has impacted your organization’s decisions on whether to engage with government, please share them with us or with your local MLA. This type of feedback helps decision makers to understand how the sector is affected.

New Funding: Recovery and Resiliency Fund 

Over the last month, we saw how the sector working together can yield concrete results. On March 24^th, the BC Government, together with the Vancouver Foundation, United Way BC, and New Relationship Trust announced the creation of a $34 million Recovery and Resiliency Fund. The money will be distributed over the next three years and is designed to support community organizations who are struggling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Priorities for funding will be organizations identified by research as being most at-risk and those who have historically been most vulnerable, including:

• Those with annual budgets under $1 million
• Indigenous, Black, and/or people of colour-led organizations
• Organizations serving racialized communities
• Organizations with leadership from equity-seeking communities

You can read more about the funding in this Vancouver Foundation blog post. Sign up for updates on the Recovery and Resiliency Fund here.

Town Hall with Parliamentary Secretary Niki Sharma

We were pleased to host a town hall meeting with Parliamentary Secretary Niki Sharma last month. About 40 individuals and groups signed up to attend the event and had an opportunity to ask questions directly regarding the provincial budget, Community Gaming Grant guidelines, COVID-19 response, social assistance supports in BC, and core funding constraints.

Vantage Point was thrilled to host this open dialogue and we’re looking forward to hosting more opportunities for members to connect with decision-makers in the provincial government and in municipal governments around the province.

There is a lot happening around the province. We’re excited to see what initiatives and ideas you will soon be harvesting.